Due 12.10.09

Presentations, 2 page research paper and outline/notes due at 8:30 pm Thursday 12.10.09.

Sketchbooks due every Thursday. New assignment each week.
This weeks assignment: show sketches of a product redesign, using typography as the strongest design element in packaging.

Pop quiz every Wednesday beginning of class on assigned chapter from Typographic Design: Form and Communication.

See you at 7.

Female Typographers.

Non-existent Design: Women and the Creation of Type

by Sibylle HagmannAugust 22, 2006

When invited to participate in an exhibition about typefaces, called Frische Schriften/Fresh Type, in the Museum of Design in Zürich in 2004, I was the only female out of more than 25 designers to exhibit recent digital font designs. This fact went almost entirely unmentioned in the accompanying catalog published on the occasion of the exhibition, with the exception of François Rappo’s contribution. His essay “Write It, Damn You, Write It!” ( Janser, 2004) very briefly acknowledges the lack of gender diversity among type designers: What about the “softer” culture-oriented fields, the “gender bent?” How does the “techno” thematic emphasis [form] fit in with the realization, be it simply empirical, that the designers represented here (but also in graphic design in general) are predominantly and insistently male? (p. 86) Rappo raises the issue of gender in relation to design and the stereotypical association between technology and masculinity. Being the only female invited among these boy whiz kids, I put the blame first on the country’s retrogressive gender equality, and second–stereotyping myself–on women’s reluctance to deal with technology. But somehow these explanations for the lack of female representatives didn’t completely satisfy me, especially since over time I came across other signs that indicated a global predominance of male type designers. One hint of this is TypeBase, an online type site listing type creators and offering detailed information on 31 designers, of whom Émigré co-founder Zuzana Licko is the only woman designer featured. This lack of gender diversity is also evident in publications featuring type designs, which are perhaps unintentionally filled with alphabets created by a majority of male designers. To this day, there are very few women who have made it into the ranks of accomplished and industry-accepted type designers. Out of the 478 font designers represented by the Linotype type foundry only 59 (12.3%) are female. A brief survey of the gender of invited speakers at recent international typographic conferences such as ATypI, TypeCon, and Typo Berlin also discloses strikingly unequal numbers: for example, ATypI (2003, 2004) and TypeCon (2003, 2004) reveal an average of 15 percent female contributors (Figure 1). Out of the total of 68 invited presenters at the Typo Berlin (2004) only 5 were female. The current climate still prevailing at type conferences is one of male “type gurus.” According to an entry in Typographica, an online journal of typography and a popular blog site, the program planning committee for the 2004 ATypI conference–Crossroads of Civilization in Prague–consisted of nine prominent, male typographers. Women subconsciously have to conform to the conference culture around them. In 1994 (11 years ago), the Women’s Design Research Unit (WD+RU) was established as a response to the male-dominated platform of speakers for the London FUSE ‘94, the interactive publication and conference for innovative typeface design. The problem of exclusion of female professionals was inadvertently stressed. It became obvious that the profession was not accurately represented in terms of female contributors. Apparently the situation has not evolved much since then. This article aims to shed light on the reasons behind the scarcity of female type designers and attempts to suggest strategies for remedying the situation. Some of the questions under discussion are: What measures could be taken to improve gender inequality in the field of typography in the 21st century? What would be the value of more women designing type and contributing to typography? What forms of unconscious resistance are there that hold women back from feeling part of type design and typographic culture?

Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd from Sibylle Hagmann, Assistant Professor, University of Houston (© Sage Publications, 2005)

MLA FORMATTING AND STYLE GUIDE.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

General Format

MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing. MLA style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages.

Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material by other writers.

If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students should also consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition). The MLA Handbook is available in most writing centers and reference libraries; it is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and at the MLA web site. See the Additional Resources section of this handout for a list of helpful books and sites about using MLA style. For an overview of the 2009 guideline changes, please visit the OWL's MLA Update 2009 resource.

Paper Format

The preparation of papers and manuscripts in MLA style is covered in chapter four of the MLA Handbook, and chapter four of the MLA Style Manual. Below are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style.

General Guidelines

• Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
• Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another. The font size should be 12 pt.
• Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).
• Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
• Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.
• Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor may ask that you omit the number on your first page. Always follow your instructor's guidelines.)
• Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.
• If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page. Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted).

Formatting the First Page of Your Paper

• Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.
• In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
• Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
• Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
• Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)

Brilliant.

Center for Architecture symbol designed by Michael Gericke.

Class Assignment recap.

2 hours of drawing:

4 obj in house... or... self portrait in color. Due Wednesday, July 29.

Reading:

Meggs chapters 5-9

Essay:

"Cult of Graphic Design" reflection. Write a brief essay [200 words] that expresses your opinions on the reading from Looking Closer 5. Due Thursday, July 30.

Visual Journal:

Find 5 logos to present and discuss in class on Wednesday, July 29. They can be popular, obscure, well designed or poorly designed.

Due Thursday 7/23

Visual Journal: 1 BW magazine ad + 1 Color magazine ad.

The Beauty Part Essay.

Read Chapters 5-9 in Meggs.

Have a lovely evening!

Thinking Life will be Better in the Future is Stupid. I have to Live Now.

— SAGMEISTER

Complaining is Silly... Either Act or Foget.

— SAGMEISTER